Image: Twitter/KOCO 5 News“I said something yesterday that was inconsiderate, it was inappropriate, and I hurt people.”
A TV presenter in the US has made a tearful apology on air after she joked that her black co-host looked like a gorilla.
Viewers called KOCO 5 News in Oklahoma City and told bosses to sack presenter Alex Housden after she made the racist comparison while sitting next to her colleague Jason Hackett.
The two presenters were concluding a story focusing on a baby gorilla when Housden, who is white, turned to her black co-anchor Jason Hackett, and said that the ape “kind of looks like you,” NBC reported.
White TV anchor Alex Housden apologizes on air for saying her black KOCO TV co-anchor, Jason Hackett, looks like a gorilla at the Oklahoma City Zoo.pic.twitter.com/4N1BBs8o4K
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) August 27, 2019
Ms. Hackett's facbook page was reportedly inundated with abuse and was removed from the social media platform entirely reports The Mirror.
The following day, a tearful Housden apologised to Hackett, saying: “I said something yesterday that was inconsiderate, it was inappropriate, and I hurt people.”
Hackett accepted her apology, but acknowledged that the words “cut deep for me”.
“I want this to be a teachable moment and that lesson here is that words, words matter,” he said.
“There’s no doubt about that.”
However many viewers were left unconvinced by the apology, including prominent sports and entertainment lawyer Exavier Pope who tweeted:
"Cringeworthy KOCO TV anchor Jason Hackett was put in a situation that centered Alex Housden’s tears and was made to sit next to her to qualify her offense of him by also standing in as 'the black friend' and then make a unifying statement. He shouldered the entire burden. SMH."
Cringeworthy KOCO TV anchor Jason Hackett was put in a situation that centered Alex Housden’s tears and was made to sit next to her to qualify her offense of him by also standing in as “the back friend” and then make a unifying statement. He shouldered the entire burden. SMH https://t.co/IwBiRl8tcG
— Exavier Pope (@exavierpope) August 28, 2019
Meanwhile another person commented: "Shame on @koconews a slap on the hand and an apology is a slap in Hackett's face! I 'was' a faithful viewer until now. Smh!!!"
